E 

2. 8 b 



DISTRICT OF COLUB/IBIA 

Safe and sane Celebration 
of Independence Day, 1911 




"**fC*i . -tfs^ 



SAFE AND SANE 
CELEBRATION 



OF 



INDEPENDENCE DAY 



AT 



THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 






WASHINGTON, D. C. 

PRESS 01" JUDD & DETWEILER, INC. 
191 1 






J 






ORDER OF EVENTS, July 4, 1911. 

Concert, Marine Band, Patriotic Exercises, District Build- 
ing 

Day Fireworks, Ellipse, south of White House 

Concerts, 15th U. S. Cav. Band, Ellipse, and 2d Inf. N. G. 
D. C, near Bathing Pools 

Swimming Contests, Bathing Pools 

Athletic Sports, Potomac Park 

Canoe Races, Potomac Park 

Concert, Engineer Band, Potomac Park 

Fireworks, Ellipse 

Illumination, Pennsylvania Avenue 



JOINT COMMITTEE, igii 



Cuno H. Rudolph, President Commissioners of the District 

of Columbia, Chairman 
George W. White, Treasurer, Board of Trade 
Thomas C. Noyes, Sec'y, Board of Trade 

Waldo C. Hibbs, Ass't Sec'y, Office Commissioners, D. C. 



George H. Harries, 
J. Fred Kelley, 
Julius Garfinkle, 
James F. Oyster, 
Henry B. F. Macfarland, 
Charles J. Bell, 
W. E. Shannon, 
E. C. Graham, 



Board of Trade 
Board of Trade 
Board of Trade 
Chamber of Commerce 
Chamber of Commerce 
Chamber of Commerce 
Chamber of Commerce 
Chamber of Commerce 



CHAIRMEN OF COMMITTEES, igii 



Committee on Finance, E. C. Graham 

David S. Porter, Vice-Chairman 



Committee 
Committee 
Committee 
Committee 
Committee 

tests, 
Committee 

Badges, 
Committee 
Committee 
Committee 



on Exercises, 
on Fireworks, 
on Music, 
on Athletics, 
on Swimming Con- 
on Medals and 

on Decorations, 

on Aviation, 

on Canoe Races, 



Henry B. F. Macfarland 
J. Fred Kelley 
Julius Garfinkle 
C. Edward Beckett 

W. B. Hudson 

Daniel E. Garges 
Frederick D. Owen 
George O. Totten 
Adrian Sizer 



PREVIOUS CELEBRATIONS. 

On July 4, 1903, the first official celebration occurred 
here, but, while there was a growing desire that the cele- 
bration of Independence Day should be without noise, the 
time was not yet favorable for the abolition of the use of 
fireworks by individuals. The Commissioners of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia inaugurated this kind of celebration. 

On July 5, 1908, another official celebration occurred, it 
being connected with the opening of the District Govern- 
ment Building. 

In 1908 the Commissioners believed the time had come 
for the abolition of noise as an expression of patriotism, and 
they prohibited by regulation the sale and use of fireworks 
by other than duly authorized committees representing pub- 
lic celebrations. With contributions subscribed, as pre- 
viously, by an interested public, a committee appointed by 
the Commissioners carried to successful completion a cele- 
bration, establishing what has come to be known as the 
"Safe and Sane Fourth," in 1909. The day after this cele- 
bration revealed the fact that there had been no accidents 
and no fires resulting from use of fireworks, as against the 
disasters of the previous Fourths of July. 

The National Capital was thus among the first to prohibit 
the use of fireworks, and probably the first to effect the 
combination of prohibition of the use of fireworks and a 
public celebration and display. 

The celebration in 19 10 was similar in its features, and 
included band concerts, canoe races, swimming races, and 
other athletic contests ; day and night fireworks, with illumi- 
nations of Pennsylvania avenue; the marking by tablets of 
points of historical interest, and patriotic exercises at the 
District Government Building. There were other interest- 
ing celebrations not on the official program, including 
suburban community celebrations with fireworks handled 
by responsible committees. The absence of casualties and 
property destruction was again noted. 



CELEBRATION OF 1911. 

The third "Safe and Sane" celebration was successfully 
carried out in 191 1, the features being similar to the celebra- 
tions of previous years.' There was an enthusiastic com- 
mittee and the public interest in the events was greater than 
ever. There were no casualties or property losses from the 
use of fireworks. Officially authorized displays of fire- 
works, in addition to the main fireworks exhibition of the 
committee, took place in suburban sections. 

Patriotic exercises were held in front of the District 
Building. 

The Marine Band, under Director W. H. Santelmann, 
having volunteered its services, furnished the musical num- 
bers. 

Mr. Henry B. F. Macfarland, Chairman of Committee on 
Exercises, presided. In opening the exercises he said that 
we of the National Capital would seem to have more 
reason to celebrate Independence Day than any other city, 
for this is the seat of the National Government and the 
place where the Declaration of Independence is kept. The 
citizens had reason also to be proud of the prominence of 
the National Capital in the "Safe and Sane" movement and 
the good results in the way of immunity from fatalities and 
fire losses. 

Mr. Ernest Gichner recited the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. His delivery was calculated to inspire enthu- 
siasm, the recitation being altogether from memory. 

Mr. George W. White, Treasurer of the Committee, es- 
corted to the rostrum Mr. Justice Thomas H. Anderson, the 
orator of the day, who, upon being presented by the chair- 
man, spoke as follows: 



THE ORATION 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

Permit me to thank the members of the Board of Trade 
and of the Chamber of Commerce, and also the president 
and members of the Board of Commissioners of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, for the honor of their invitation to ad- 
dress you upon this recurring anniversary of our National 
Independence. 

Memorial Days. 

In celebrating the fourth day of July we but follow an 
ancient and honorable custom. Ever since the first memo- 
rial stones of history were set up in the opened channel of 
the Red Sea, to commemorate an imperishable event in 
Jewish history, it has been the custom of all nations and 
peoples to commemorate, in some suitable fashion, the 
memorial days of their history. 

Along the pathway of our own eventful history a grate- 
ful people have erected their memorial stones and set apart 
their memorial days, in recognition of the two great epochs 
of our national life through which we have safely passed : 

The Fathers of the Republic gave us the 4th day of July 
as a memorial to the achievements of the Revolution, and 
their grateful countrymen that stately monument that com- 
mands our view and our admiration from every point of the 
National Capital, and speaks to us in silent eloquence of its 
immortal hero: Washington, the Father and Founder of 
the World's Greatest Democracy. 

In the onward sweep of our history, and out of the clouds 
and storms and whirlwinds of war, there was born another 
great memorial day, that for nearly half a century we have 
honored and observed by strewing the graves of its fallen 
heroes with the blooming flowers of May. 



The Intervening Years. 

Between these two great memorial days there intervened 
almost a century of our national growth and industrial 
development, in which we kept the flag of the Fathers fly- 
ing triumphantly over every foot of our vast territory in 
token of an undivided and sovereign nation. Barring the 
War of 1812 with England, and of 1848 with Mexico, these 
intervening years were marked by profound tranquillity 
and marvelous industrial progress. For fifty years follow- 
ing our independence, says an eminent English historian, 
"the history of America is a record of industrial progress 
without a parallel in the annals of the human race." 

Such, my friends, was our splendid progress and such our 
proud position at the close of the first epoch of our national 
existence. 

Slavery and the Civil War. 

Then came the Civil War, and tranquil America suddenly 
became the first military power of the world. The hour 
had struck when the experiment of free government as 
established by the Fathers, and guaranteed by the Consti- 
tution, was to be put to its final and severest test. An irre- 
pressible conflict between National unity and State sover- 
eignty that had been going on in the councils of the nation 
for more than sixty years was to be finally settled by the 
arbitram.ent of arms. Moreover, there was involved the 
further and deeper question whether this nation, chosen of 
God to lead the great family of nations in their onward 
march to a higher civilization and a purer Christianity, 
could survive the crucial test of purification essential to its 
great mission. 

The evil to be put away was fundamental and older than 
the Government itself — an evil so at variance with every 
rational conception of free government as to be a constant 
and dangerous menace to the peace and perpetuity of the 
nation. 



In the dread alarm of war, and under our limitations to 
grasp the far-reaching plans and purposes of the Infinite, 
we saw naught but the exigencies and needs of the imme- 
diate present. We saw the lowering clouds of war, but not 
the kindly light beyond that was soon to break in blessings 
upon the nation. We did not realize that the great Master 
Builder of nations and empires was preparing to purify the 
nation in the fires of war, in order that we might go forward 
unshackled and free in meeting the obligations of a new 
epoch in our national life upon which we were about to 
enter. 

Unfortunately the blessings of national independence 
came to us burdened with a system of servitude that long 
antedated the Revolution. So repugnant was it to the fun- 
damental principles of free government that Mr. Jefferson, 
in his original draft of the Declaration of Independence, 
embodied a clause strongly condemning it. Although this 
clause was stricken out, its fundamental principle — the 
equality of human rights — remained, and hence it was writ- 
ten, "All men are created free and equal." This funda- 
mental maxim became the guiding star of public opinion 
until, in the fulness of time, a Power higher than our 
own decreed that this inherited evil, whose shadow had 
fallen across our pathway like the sin of idolatry that 
had hovered about the camps of ancient Israel, must first 
be put away that we might go forward. Then it was that 
Abraham Lincoln, the servant of the Lord and the leader of 
his people, issued his immortal proclamation that forever 
redeemed our national honor and made good the basic prin- 
ciple of our Declaration of Independence. 

A Turning Point in History. 

This historic event, not even so much as dreamed of in 
the beginning, marked the turning point of our history and 
rang down the curtain upon the closing scenes of the sec- 
ond epoch of our history. When the great Emancipator 



8 

unbound the slaves, he unbound the nation as well, and the 
flag once more waved in peaceful triumph over a reunited 
country — a country redeemed and purified in the hot blasts 
of civil war, and finally made fit for its Divinely-appointed 
mission. 

Rebuilding. 

With malice toward none and with charity for all, with 
victor and vanquished alike rejoicing in the return of peace, 
the nation entered once more upon an era of unprecedented 
national and industrial development. With a passion for 
work and a genius for great undertakings we soon out- 
distanced all competitors in the production of wealth and 
in the mastery of conditions that make for the happiness 
and welfare of the people and for the wider distribution of 
their products in the markets of the world. 

The Third Epoch in Our History. 

With a constantly increasing world-wide interest in the 
activities of other peoples and in all international questions 
affecting our own domestic affairs or our relations with 
other powers, and with an aggressive though peace-loving 
population of eighty millions of people in i8g8, we could 
not, in the very logic of our position as the dominant 
power of the Western Hemisphere, long remain bound by 
the limitations of a single continent. The time had come 
Avhen it only required some just occasion to arouse the pub- 
lic conscience and bring us face to face with our manifest 
destiny as a Christian nation. Suddenly, and without our 
seeking, the occasion came when the oppressive hand of 
Spain was laid too heavily upon Cuba. The war which fol- 
lowed, and the naval victories of Manila and Santiago, were 
but the stately steppings of Him who reigns supreme, re- 
vealing to us for the first time our manifest destiny as a 
sovereign nation and as a great world power. 



9 

The Interpretation. 

I have thus briefly sketched the eventful years that He 
behind us, to the end that we might see with clearer vision, 
if possible, that we are not here by the mere accident of 
history — that this priceless heritage is not ours by the mere 
fiat of our own power nor by the mere work of our own 
hands — but as a divinely chosen people to work out a great 
and glorious end. 

If you ask what are the chief influences entering into our 
national life that make this Republic at once the wonder 
and admiration of the world, I answer, they are to be found 
in the simple fact that with the rise of this Republic the 
streams of human progress received into their sluggish 
currents for the first time the quickening influence and 
dynamic force of the Christian religion, individual liberty, 
and national patriotism. Grasp this great truth, and you 
grasp the mystery — if mystery there be — of our marvelous 
growth and power. 

The Result. 

As the mantle of Elijah falling upon the shoulders of 
Elisha indued him with mighty power, so the mantle of 
these dynamic forces falling upon the broad shoulders of 
the young Republic indued it with a power and influence 
that made it at once the hope and prophecy of the future. 
Behold the result ! Our growth in population and wealth ; 
our advancement in the arts and sciences ; our unequalled 
development along all lines that tend to the greatness and 
glory of a people finds us, at the end of less than a century 
and a quarter of constitutional government, in the full stat- 
ure of national development and pre-eminent as a world 
power. Our influence, no longer limited to a single conti- 
nent, now belts the globe. We have a thousand points of 
contact with the world's activities and aspirations unknown 
and undreamed of by our Fathers. Through the medium 



lO 

of Steel rails and ocean highways, the clicking telegraph 
and the whispering telephone, the submarine cable and the 
printing press, the electric flash and the winged and wire- 
less messengers of the air we are tenants in common with 
all mankind in all that makes up the sum total of human 
knowledge and human acl^iievement. 

Great Leaders. 

As we look back across the years and mark these three 
distinct epochs of our history great deeds and great names 
crowd the memory. In the roll-call of these immortal lead- 
ers stand the names of Washington, Lincoln, and McKinley. 

To Washington it was given to lay the foundation stones 
and rear the superstructure of the Republic upon the virgin 
soil of America. All honor to his great name and all praise 
to those who would teach men to revere his memory and 
emulate his unselfish patriotism. 

To Lincoln was assigned the mighty task of preserving 
the integrity of the Republic and the establishment of a 
more permanent Union, based upon the fundamental doc- 
trines of the Declaration of Independence. So well did he 
meet the heavy task laid upon him that his name is forever 
enthroned in the hearts of his grateful countrymen. 

Upon the broad and manly shoulders of the lamented 
and beloved McKinley was laid the task of lifting the Re- 
public founded by Washington and saved by Lincoln from 
its proud position as the dominant power of a single conti- 
nent to the infinitely prouder position of a great world 
power. 

In Washington, Lincoln, and McKinley we have a trinity 
of names that will live for all time and be the inspiration of 
their countrymen throughout all generations. 

Looking to the Future. 

As we review the past and contemplate the future we may 
face the coming years with confidence, so long as we recog- 



II 

nize the fact that the finger of God is writing our history. 
So long as we are true to Him, true to the traditions of the 
past, and true to ourselves we may well believe that this 
Republic of one hundred millions of people, "representing 
the most stupendous reservoir of human energy" in all his- 
tory, has but fairly entered upon her matchless career. 

Ours is pre-eminently a land of liberty and of oppor- 
tunity. Liberty has been the yearning cry of the human 
soul ever since the morning stars first sang together, and 
will be to the end. In every upward struggle of the race 
liberty and equality of opportunity have been the pillars 
of cloud and of fire that have led the way through all the 
wanderings and vicissitudes of men. While the advocates 
of these two great ideas were oft driven from the field, these 
immortal ideas themselves marched steadily on until, in the 
fulness of time, they found their first concrete expression 
in our Declaration of Independence and their first perma- 
nent habitation under the Constitution of the United States. 
It was for these eternal verities of natural justice that the 
Fathers of the Republic drew their swords, and in the name 
of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress achieved 
their final triumph. 

My fellow citizens : While you may retard, you cannot 
defeat the progress of a nation builded upon a foundation 
such as this. You might as well, in feeble imitation of that 
great Jewish leader, say to the sun, "Stand thou still upon 
Gibeon, and thou, moon, in the Valley of Aijalon," and ex- 
pect the mighty miracle to be wrought at your mere com- 
mand. While we have now and then experienced an un- 
stable equilibrium, and may again, we need not fear so long 
as the love of liberty and the influence of the American 
home abides and the Constitution and laws of the country 
are respected and obeyed. 

New Problems. 

In the evolution of our history and the history of the 
world we have finally entered upon a period of readjust- 



12 

ment both at home and abroad. While we are facing many 
perplexing problems of our own that we must settle for 
ourselves, we may confidently trust to the wisdom and 
common sense of the people for their rightful and timely 
settlement. As a world power we are likewise concerned 
in the right solution of the world's problems, in so far as 
they substantially affect our own interests and the general 
welfare of mankind. Therefore it is that we are the insist- 
ent and consistent advocates of international peace through 
the medium of international arbitration, under the provis- 
ions of an international code, whereby effect may be given 
to the findings and decrees of a permanent Court of Arbi- 
tration to be established as speedily as possible by the con- 
certed action of all nations. In no other way can the 
world's peace on a large scale be determined and main- 
tained. 

Good Citizenship. 

Again, in a Government like ours, in which we select 
from among the people, and not from a preferred class, 
those who make our laws, and likewise those who execute 
them, it is the paramount duty of every citizen to under- 
stand the nature and operation of the Government under 
which he lives. The mere fact that we are citizens of the 
Republic, and under the protection of its Constitution and 
laws, is reason enough for an intelligent knowledge of our 
system of government and of the machinery by which it is 
operated, even though we may not, as in the District of 
Columbia we do not, directly participate in its management. 

Our Constitution. 

Considering the object and far-reaching influence of civil 
government as defined in the preamble or enacting clause 
of the Constitution itself, and how vital that object is to the 
welfare of each one of us and to the people as a whole, it is 



13 

amazing that we were not taught its meaning and required 
to memorize its constitutional definitions while yet in our 
childhood as sternly and as solemnly as we were set to 
study our catechisms. Listen! Its object is to — 

"establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, pro- 
vide for the common defense, promote the general 
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to our- 
selves and our posterity." 

How simple the language, and yet of what mighty im- 
port ! Every word breathes of justice, liberty, and peace — 
the highest aspirations of the human soul. They ring as 
true as the Ten Commandments, and have the same Divine 
authority. No man can grasp the breadth of meaning of 
this preamble to the Constitution without experiencing an 
uplifting thrill of patriotism and a new inspiration to good 
citizenship. 

It will be observed from these opening words of the Con^ 
stitution that the end of civil government is not simply 
repression. Its purpose is not merely to restrain the 
wrongdoer and punish the guilty. These are the mere in- 
cidents of government. Its highest purpose is the general 
welfare of the people, and is therefore constructive rather 
than restrictive. Hence it follows that every undertaking, 
rightly directed, that has for its object the advancement of 
civilization and the betterment of the people, whether by 
the State, by individuals, or by organizations, acting under 
authority of the State, falls within the scope of the public- 
welfare clause of the Constitution, and is deserving of our 
loyal support, uninfluenced by party affiliations, local preju- 
dice, or denominational doctrines or differences. 

In thus directing your attention to the scope and purpose 
of the National Constitution, I would reawaken your in- 
terest and stir up your minds to a higher appreciation of 
this great charter of our liberties. It so far transcends all 
other constitutions ever devised by the wit of man that it 
has come to be the accepted model after which the organic 



14 

laws of other enlightened governments are being fashioned 
in order to meet the ever-increasing demands of the people 
for larger liberty and the right to participate in the making 
and execution of the laws under which they live. It is the 
first organic law in the history of mankind based on natural 
justice, and therefore its, only prototype is to be found in 
the Sermon on the Mount, the world's first and greatest 
constitution. 

It is under the safeguards of this marvelous charter of 
powers that our good ship of state, greater in power and 
moral influence than the combined dreadnaughts of all the 
navies of the world, for more than one hundred and twenty 
years has held her course until the thirteen stars lighting 
up the field of blue of her glorious flag when nailed to her 
masthead in 1789 have multiplied to forty-six in 191 1, with 
two more about to be added. 

Our History. 

Again, no man can justly claim to be well informed or 
well equipped for the duties of citizenship who is not famil- 
iar with the history of his country as well as with its Con- 
stitution. If I were a Roman addressing you as Roman 
citizens, and were to make the same appeal to you that I 
now do as an American to his fellow-Americans, I would 
be suggesting to you a somewhat difficult task, for the his- 
tory of Rome, like that of Egypt and of ancient Greece, 
stretches along a tortuous and checkered path far back into 
the past ; but the history of your country and of mine is yet 
fresh with the morning dew, buoyant with the vigor of 
youth, clean and well ordered in its achievements, and glo- 
rious in the annals of the human race. But a httle over a 
century and a quarter have passed since we entered the 
great family of nations as an independent power, and there- 
fore but a winter's night, as it were, is required to learn its 
storied past and become familiar with the lives and deeds 
of those who have made our country great and greatly hon- 



15 

ored by all nations and peoples throughout the world. By 
so much as the knowledge thus gained, by so much will he 
who gains it be a prouder and better citizen, and withal a 
happier man, because he thereby adds to his sum of knowl- 
edge that which no man can take from him and that which 
will be to him an inexhaustible fountain, from which he 
may constantly draw refreshing draughts of wisdom and 
knowledge in the quietude and contentment of his own life 
and home. 

The Law. 

As we love justice and liberty, and the Constitution and 
history upon which they rest, so should we love and respect 
the law, for law is the expression of justice and the guardian 
of liberty. Without law there is no liberty, and without 
liberty there is no justice. Liberty is the natural cry of the 
human soul, and the law is its citadel of defense. Destroy 
this citadel, and liberty would perish and anarchy reign 
supreme. Pope, in poetic measure, thus accentuates this 
thought : 

"Oh, give me liberty, 
For were even Paradise my prison-house, 
I would long to leap its crystal walls," 

Liberty and law are the attributes of Deity, and the -most 
priceless gifts that ever descended from the hand of God to 
the human race. Were it not for the law, liberty would 
degenerate into license, and utter chaos would prevail. As 
the harmony of the universe is alone maintained by obe- 
dience to the immutable laws of God, so the harmony of the 
world and the peace and happiness of mankind can only be 
established and maintained by obedience to the laws and 
due respect for the courts, whose duty it is to wisely and 
justly administer them. 



i6 



Conclusion. 

Out of the glorious past must come the lessons of the 
future. An experience of one hundred and thirty-five years 
has demonstrated the wisdom and the far-reaching states- 
manship of the Fathers of the Republic in reposing the vast 
powers of government in three great co-ordinate branches, 
each acting within its own constitutional limitations and yet 
working in such perfect harmony as to insure to every citi- 
zen under the flag the protection of a strong, just, and stable 
government. 

To destroy or impair the efficiency of any one of these 
branches of government would be to destroy the govern- 
ment itself, and with it the liberties of the people. So long, 
however, as those charged with public office act within the 
limits of their legal powers and carry out the positive in- 
structions of the law we have nothing to fear. For behind 
the law, which is the shield and buckler against the un- 
lawful and vicious assaults of unwise and foolish men, 
stands the sovereign will of the people, quick to give its 
sanction and support to the reasonable exercise of all the 
constitutional powers of government for the enforcement 
of its decrees and the maintenance of public order. 

To this spirit of obedience to constituted authority and 
the steadfast devotion of the people to our American insti- 
tutions and to the scheme of government established by the 
framers of the Constitution do we owe the fact that we have 
outdistanced all other nations, ancient or modern, in solv- 
ing the problems of human government and the betterment 
of the human race. 



17 



A DISAPPEARING SACRIFICE. 

The annual compilation of the deaths and injuries from 
the insane Fourth has just been completed by the Journal 
of the American Medical Association for the 191 1 holiday. 
It shows a remarkable decrease, both in the number of fatal- 
ities and casualties. But 57 deaths are reported, as against 
466 in 1903, and 131 in igio, or the eight-year average of 
over 200. The number of accidents has also decreased from 
5,600 in 1908, the highest, to 1,603 this year. The Journal 
puts it strikingly when it says that in nine years thirty- 
seven regiments of American men, women, and children 
have been mutilated for life, and two regiments have been 
killed, in the celebration of Independence Day.— From the 
Pittsburgh Dispatch. 



JUN 24 bl2 






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